Dear Ed,
Assessment of statistics from the People and Nature Survey for England
I would like to thank you for your letter dated 10th January 2023.
We welcome the assessment report, particularly its finding that statistics from the People and Nature Survey for England are valued by a range of users and provide helpful insight into people’s interactions with the natural environment. We recognise the importance of the requirements the review has identified and are taking steps to address them.
In response to assessment report, the People and Nature Survey project team has worked with their counterparts at the OSR to develop an Action Plan focusing on four priority areas for further development of the survey:
- Improving the public value of the People and Nature Survey through better communication with the survey’s users and stakeholders;
- Providing guidance to help users compare the survey with statistics derived from similar surveys produced elsewhere in the UK;
- Helping users to understand how data derived from the People and Nature Survey can be compared to data derived from the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) survey;
- Working with the data producer to improve the quality of the statistics produced by the survey.
A full outline of the steps the team is taking to meet the requirements can be found in the Annexe to this letter.
We are extremely grateful to the team at the OSR for their positive and constructive engagement during the assessment process. We look forward to working with them in future as we continue to improve the trustworthiness, quality and value of our statistical products.
I am copying this letter to Lindsey Clothier, Deputy Head of Profession for Statistics at DEFRA, and to the team at Natural England – Tom Marshall, Caitlin Clark, Amy Greenwood, and Sergio Milheiras.
Yours sincerely,
IAN LONSDALE
Head of Profession for Statistics, Defra